


Where We're Going, We Don't Need Roads

by merryofsoul



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Bletchley Park, F/M, Gen, Pre-Relationship, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 12:36:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13054122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merryofsoul/pseuds/merryofsoul
Summary: Lucy and Rufus head to World War II era England, and meet someone who doesn't exactly belong there.





	Where We're Going, We Don't Need Roads

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Redrikki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrikki/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide Redrikki! I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Thank you to thosesamestarsx for the beta, as usual <3

_Somewhere outside Bletchley, England_  
_May 23, 1941_

Lucy scowls to herself as she slips yet again in a muddy puddle, hindering her progress up the hill. She’ll be able to get clean and warm once they find a hotel for the night, but even that thought doesn’t make the journey from the Lifeboat’s landing site to the city center any more enjoyable.

Despite the daunting fact that they’re trying to prevent a murder and damage to history, Lucy feels a thrill of excitement when they reach the peak of the hill and see Bletchley spread out below them. She can’t believe she’s in the same place as the women codebreakers of Bletchley Park, and that she’ll get to meet some of them tomorrow. 

Karl interrupts her moment of reverence with a gruff, “Let’s go.” He starts down the hill without waiting for his companions, and Lucy and Rufus share a long-suffering look before following him. Lucy is here to do a job and help prevent the unraveling of history, but sometimes she wants to go to Agent Christopher’s office and ask why there wasn’t a single other member of the military available for their team. 

It’s not like Karl has done anything _wrong_ per say, he’s just a major asshole, and Lucy absolutely hates working with him. He second guesses Lucy’s information all of the time, and there have been quite a few near misses where one of them almost hasn’t made it back from a mission. 

Lucy pushes her uneasiness aside and focuses on where she’s putting her feet so she doesn’t fall down the hill. 

*

_Bletchley Park_  
_May 24, 1941_

The next morning is chilly and damp, which is to be expected, but Lucy is sweating with nerves anyway. She checks her purse for her credentials for the tenth time as she approaches the gate, and tries to look like she knows what she’s doing. Rufus and Karl are around in case anything goes wrong, but their main role on this mission is to pretend to be American soldiers on leave. Lucy is the one who has to get into the women-only codebreaking hut and get to Jane Hughes. 

Tomorrow is the day that Jane and the other women she works with will be given their assignment to locate the _Bismark_ , a German battleship, and two days after that, the _Bismark_ will be sunk due to Jane’s codebreaking. Flynn is here to eliminate Jane Hughes from the equation, therefore ensuring she can’t help locate the ship and simultaneously guaranteeing the codebreakers first major breakthrough doesn’t happen. 

Lucy thinks through all of the negative outcomes as she walks. The immediate outcome is the _Bismark_ isn’t sunk and it goes on to do more damage. The long-term outcome is Jane Hughes isn’t there for future codebreaking, and the codebreaking project itself isn’t validated. Lucy loses track of the different ways the whole timeline of the war could be affected if the higher up officials decide to do away with the Bletchley Park codebreaking projects, or don’t put as much stock in the information that comes from them. 

The guard stops Lucy with a raised hand and asks for her credentials, which Lucy passes to him with a hand that is thankfully not shaking. 

“And the papers for your assignment?” The guard asks. Lucy fishes those out of her purse as well. June Canney, one of the women who works in the registration room of the building Lucy needs to access, was called away from work yesterday with a letter saying her mother was ill. Luckily, Lucy is here to fill in for a few days while June makes the journey home. Of course, when June arrives home, she’ll find her mother is as healthy as the last time they saw each other, and by the time June gets back to Bletchley Park, Lucy will be long gone. Lucy feels mildly guilty about making someone worry about a sick mother, but she reminds herself that the outcome of this change to history would be a lot worse. 

“Go on through,” the guard says, waving Lucy through the barrier. She sets off in what she hopes is the right direction, but of course none of the buildings actually have numbers on them. She’s not surprised when another guard crosses paths with her and asks, “Can I help you find something, ma’am?”

Lucy feels her hackles rise at the formality, but forces herself to relax and remember that it’s how people address each other in this time.

“Yes, actually,” Lucy says, trying to sound grateful rather than annoyed. “I’m looking for Hut Six.”

The guard blinks at her. “You’re American,” he says, sounding surprised. 

“So are you,” Lucy replies wryly. 

“That I am,” the guard replies with a grin. “I’m sorry, I just don’t usually hear that accent around here. I get a little…” He trails off, looking uncertain and a little vulnerable, but it’s gone in an instant.

“Homesick?” Lucy suggests. The guard smiles, and it’s more of a grimace.

“You could say that,” he replies. There’s a beat of silence, and then he gestures behind him. “I can show you to the building.”

“Thank you,” Lucy replies.

Lucy had in fact been going in the right direction, and it’s a quick walk to finally reach the building. There’s a woman leaning against the wall with a cigarette between her fingers, and she watches them approach as she blows out a plume of smoke. Lucy tries not to wrinkle her nose at the scent. She could be smelling much worse things.

“You Carter?”

Lucy nods. “Yes, but you can call me Peggy.”

The guard next to her suddenly coughs, and Lucy looks at him in concern. 

“Are you okay?” Lucy asks. The guard nods and looks at her with wide eyes. Lucy didn’t notice it before, but they’re a shocking shade of blue. 

“I’m fine,” the guard replies, though he doesn’t look it. “Have a nice day, ma’am.” He nods to Lucy and the other woman, and then turns and strides away. The woman next to Lucy sighs longingly. 

“He is one fine looking man,” the woman says. Lucy silently agrees.

The woman drops her cigarette and steps on it, opening the door and herding Lucy through. “I’m Ione, that’s Irene, Helen, Jean, Ann, Jane, Mair…” Lucy tries to take in all of the women Ione is introducing, but the commotion of the room drowns a lot of it out. It’s dark and chilly, with a haze of cigarette smoke hanging over everything. The machines the women are working on make up most of the noise of the room, though there are women raising their voices over the sounds to call out information to each other. 

“You’ll be over here,” Ione calls, leading Lucy through a doorway into another room. “I’m not sure how long June will be gone, but this desk is yours until she comes back.” Lucy places her purse on the desk and tries not to look around too wide-eyed. She’s supposed to be on loan from a branch of American intelligence, so a room like this shouldn’t be new to her.

Ione continues talking. “I don’t know how much they let you do, so for now just type up these transmissions in triplicate and then pass it over there,” Ione gestures to the other side of them room where three women are working, perfectly coiffed heads bent over their work. “They’ll code it and send it out.”

Lucy nods and then Ione is gone, leaving Lucy standing at her desk with a pile of work to do. Lucy sits down and begins to type.

*

During her first break to the bathroom, Lucy finds Jane’s desk as she walks by. She’s struck by how young Jane is, having only turned twenty a few months before. There’s no reason for Lucy to stop and try to talk to her over the noise of the machines, so Lucy is left to hurry back to her desk and think of a reason to talk to Jane alone, and warn her in a way that will make Jane believe her. 

Lucy works on retyping transmissions as quickly as she can. She yearns briefly for the simple keystrokes that would allow her print a thousand copies in one click, but she quickly falls into a rhythm. It’s not until her second bathroom break that she gets lucky enough to catch Jane. It’s started to rain, and Lucy is blowing into her fingers to warm them up as she steps back into Hut Six. She almost bumps into Jane, who is heading out.

“Oh!” Jane smiles brightly. “You’re the new girl, aren’t you?”

Lucy smiles. “Yes, I’m Peggy.”

“I’m Jane. Fancy a cuppa?”

Lucy nods enthusiastically, because it’s cold and she needs something to ease the ache that’s beginning in her fingers. Jane smiles again and steps out into the drizzle, motioning for Lucy to follow her. She leads Lucy to a hut practically identical to the one they just left, but when they open the door there’s only the low hum of conversation and the warm scent of tea. Lucy breathes in deeply and smiles. After being stuck in the chaos of Hut Six all morning, it’s nice to get a change of scenery.

“This is where we can get away from the noise for a little bit,” Jane says to Lucy as she leads her to a table across the room. “I like to come at this time because Millie always makes a fresh pot right around now.”

Lucy smiles, but her gaze is on someone else across the room. It’s the guard from earlier, sitting at a table with a colleague, half finished beers in front of them. He’s watching Lucy closely, and not in the way that men usually leer at women. There’s something troubled in his gaze, and Lucy wonders what she might’ve done in their short meeting to cause it.

“Do you know Sergeant Sherwin?” Jane asks, smiling mischievously. Lucy looks away from the guard quickly, an embarrassed flush climbing her neck. 

“No, not really,” Lucy replies, taking the cup and saucer Jane passes to her. “He helped me find my way before, but I didn’t even catch his name.”

“He’s a favorite of the girls here,” Jane says as she leads Lucy to an empty table nearby. “Not that he returns the interest. I thought he had a sweetheart back home, but maybe he was just waiting for the right girl.”

Lucy stirs some sugar into her tea as Jane’s words sink in. “What, me?”

Jane laughs at Lucy’s bewilderment and leans close over the table to whisper, “You should see the way he’s looking at you.”

The blush is back, and Lucy wants to roll her eyes at herself. She’s here to complete a mission and save Jane’s life, not get flattered by the attentions of some soldier. She struggles to think of a way to bring the conversation away from cute men and to keeping Jane safe without giving anyone a reason to believe that Lucy doesn’t belong here. Her fingers start to shake almost simultaneously with the pounding in her head, and this is so not the time or place for the beginnings of a panic attack, but her body doesn’t seem to get the memo. She jumps in her seat at a gentle touch on her arm, and looks up into Jane’s worried eyes. 

“Are you alright, Peggy?” 

Lucy swallows and tightens her grip on her teacup, leeching the warmth from the ceramic. 

“I’m fine,” she says, with a smile she hopes is believable. “What were we talking about?”

*

“What do you mean you didn’t warn her?”

Lucy flinches as Karl’s harsh tone, her temper rising. It’s been a long day of working in the cramped, noisy office, she’d only just gotten back to the hotel for the night, and the hunger she’s been feeling since the late afternoon is gnawing away at her stomach. She wants to be alone in the peace and quiet of her room, not sitting here getting berated by her short-tempered teammate. Again.

“It’s not like I can easily drop it into a conversation,” Lucy snipes back. “What was I supposed to say? ‘Hey Jane, a time-traveling psychopath is going to try and murder you over the next two days. By the way, I’m also from the future and you just need to trust me, okay?’”

Karl rolls his eyes and Rufus steps between them, eyes wide. 

“Guys, it’s okay. We’ll figure it out.”

“This is why I should’ve gone in,” Karl says, ignoring Rufus completely. “I would’ve extracted her already.”

“She still needs to decode the message about the _Bismark_ ,” Lucy points out. “We can’t extract her until she’s done that.”

“Can’t she do it another time? As long as the _Bismark_ gets sunk, who cares when it happens?”

Lucy takes a deep breath and tries not to let her irritation take over. No matter how many times she’s explained the consequences of too many changes in history, Karl never seems to listen. He always wants to take what he deems the easiest and quickest route without considering the longer lasting ramifications.

“Agent Christopher was very clear on when we could extract Jane,” Rufus says. “Unless Flynn comes for her in the middle of the work day, we’re not supposed to interfere until after she decodes the message.”

“What if he goes for her tonight?” Lucy asks, horrified that she hadn’t thought of it before.

“We’ve got it covered,” Rufus reassures her. “I’m leaving soon to go watch her place, and Karl will do it tomorrow night. You just have to stick close to her during the day.”

Karl huffs, as if he finds it amusing that Lucy could keep Jane safe if something happens to her. Lucy draws in a breath to give him a piece of her mind, but Rufus shakes his head as if to say, ‘It’s not worth it.’ Lucy knows he’s right, but it would probably make her feel a little better to let Karl know what she thinks of his misogynistic attitude.

“Okay,” Lucy says instead, standing to go back to her own room. She wants food and a hot bath, and she wants to not have to see Karl again until absolutely necessary. “See you in the morning.”

“Good night,” Rufus replies, while Karl doesn’t respond, as usual. Lucy and Rufus exchange eye rolls, and then Lucy escapes to her own room.

At some point during her nighttime routine, her thoughts turn to Sergeant Sherwin without her permission. No matter how many times she runs their meeting through her mind, she still can’t figure out what she might’ve said to him to make him look at her like he did. Between worrying about that and how to keep Jane alive, it takes Lucy a very long time to fall asleep, but the stress of the day overtakes her eventually, and her last thought before she falls asleep is about Sergeant Sherwin’s eyes.

*

_May 25, 1941_

Lucy shuffles some papers around on her desk and peeks over her shoulder again at the door behind her. Jane and several other women were called in there about ten minutes ago, and Lucy knows that they’re receiving their assignments about decoding the messages concerning the _Bismark_. Lucy feels her anxiety spike as she realizes that Flynn could come for Jane at any moment now, and with Rufus and Karl all of the way on the outside of Bletchley Park, Lucy is the first line of defense for Jane if — and when — anything happens to her.

Lucy has never wanted to carry a gun in her life, but she suddenly desperately wants one.

“You alright over there?” Lucy startles as one of the women working near her calls over. 

“I’m okay,” Lucy replies. The door opens behind her and Jane and the other women exit and hurry back through to the decoding room and their machines. Through the open door, Lucy can see Jane hurry to sit down and get to work.

It’s close to two hours later before Jane finally gets up for a break, and Lucy scrambles to follow. Jane only has a few steps of a head start, but she’s halfway up the path to the recreation hut by the time Lucy steps outside. Lucy glances around, panic building in her stomach as she thinks about all of the places Flynn could be hiding, or snipers he might have posted around. She goes to hurry after Jane, but is stopped by someone calling out after her.

“Ms. Carter?” Lucy takes a few more steps before she realizes that’s supposed to be her. She turns back and sees Sergeant Sherwin standing nearby. Lucy briefly wonders if he’d been waiting outside the hut for a chance to talk to her, but brushes that thought aside. Of course he wasn’t.

“Yes?” Lucy asks, peeking over her shoulder to see that Jane is long gone. 

“Do you have a second to talk?” Sergeant Sherwin asks with a smile. Part of Lucy wants to stay and talk, but the more rational part of her brain is yelling at her to stop being such an idiot.

“I’m sorry,” Lucy replies, already turning to walk away. “I don’t.” 

She quickens her pace, but Sergeant Sherwin doesn’t call out again or follow after her. Lucy breathes out a sigh of relief when she enters the recreation hut and sees Jane enjoying a cup of tea. Jane spots her and waves her over, and Lucy happily obliges after procuring her own cup.

“Was that Sergeant Sherwin I saw you talking to outside?” Jane asks before Lucy even has a chance to sit down. Lucy smiles despite herself, seeing the way gossip makes Jane perk up.

“Only for a second,” Lucy says. “But I don’t have time to talk to him.”

“Playing hard to get,” Jane says knowingly. “I think he’ll like that.”

Lucy smiles and doesn’t say anything to contradict Jane’s fantasies. She lets Jane sigh about Sergeant Sherwin’s eyes for a minute, nibbling at a cookie and watching Jane talk. She looks tired, like most of the people working here, and Lucy feels a pang of sympathy.

“You must be hungry,” Jane cuts herself off to say. Lucy looks down at her plate and sees she’s eaten all of her cookies in record time. She tries to protest when Jane tips her uneaten treats onto Lucy’s plate, but she really is hungry.

“Thanks,” Lucy says. “I didn’t get a very good dinner last night.” 

Jane clucks sympathetically before studying Lucy with a thoughtful look on her face. 

“Why don’t you come out to dinner with some of us tonight?” Jane asks. “We don’t do it often, but there’s a pub down the street that serves a wonderful stew.”

“If I’m not intruding on anything,” Lucy says. “That would be wonderful.”

“Some of the soldiers go there too,” Jane says in a conspiratorial whisper. “Though they’re supposed to pretend they don’t work with us every day.”

“And I suspect Sergeant Sherwin is one of these soldiers?” 

Jane’s grin turns wicked. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

*

Lucy has a brief moment after they exit the gates at Bletchley Park to tell her team about the slight change in plans. She loosens her scarf enough that the wind takes it and blows it away, and when she scurries away from the group of women to grab it, she finds that someone has already picked it up for her.

“I’m going to dinner with Jane and some others at the pub,” Lucy tells Rufus as she takes the scarf back from him. She can hear the women behind her giggling to each other, and she fights back a smile at the bashful look on Rufus’s face. In his military uniform borrowed from the costume section, Rufus blends in with the other soldiers that periodically pass through. Lucy’s own uniform is itchy and constricting, and the stocking and heels she’s had to wear are getting on her last nerves.

“I’ll be there, and I’ll let Karl know,” Rufus replies, disappearing down the path.

Lucy nods, briefly wishing that Karl won’t come anywhere near the pub, but knowing that it makes sense to have trained backup. She rejoins the group and they continue on their way to the pub, but it’s not long before she’s called away again, but this time by Sergeant Sherwin. He appears at the edge of the group, the collar of his uniform loose and his hands in his pockets. 

“Do you have time now, Ms. Carter?” The question is accompanied with a smile. The women around her burst into giggles, and Lucy presses her lips together in frustration. The man is obviously used to women falling for his charms, but he’s getting in the way of her mission and Lucy has had about enough. 

“I suppose,” Lucy replies, ready to wind up and give this man a piece of her mind. Her groups continues on ahead without her, and Lucy and Sergeant Sherwin follow along not far behind them. 

“Look, Sergeant Sherwin—”

“Please,” he says. “Call me Wyatt.”

“Wyatt,” Lucy repeats. “I don’t really have time for personal matters. I’m only here for a few days, and then I won’t ever be back.”

Wyatt’s mouth quirks into a wry smile. “Funny. You think you’d have all the time in the world.”

Something about the way he says it makes Lucy want to stop in her tracks, but she keeps her feet moving so she doesn’t lose sight of Jane. Wyatt doesn’t seem to notice her slight stumble and continues talking. 

“How do you know you’ll never be back here?” Wyatt asks. “And besides, we’ll both be back in the States eventually, right?”

“At some point,” Lucy agrees, hesitant to give him too much hope. 

Wyatt smiles again, and Lucy loses it.

“What am I saying that’s so funny?” She demands.

“Nothing, ma’am,” Wyatt replies. “You’re just not great at turning people down politely.”

“I wasn’t trying to be polite,” Lucy mutters. Wyatt outright laughs at that, and Lucy smiles despite herself.

“You must be charming _all_ of the boys back home,” Wyatt teases.

“You’d be surprised,” Lucy replies, and then before she wonders why she cares, she asks, “Where’s home for you?”

“East Texas,” Wyatt replies. “You?”

“San Francisco,” Lucy says, realizing she’s echoing Wyatt’s wistful tone before she can stop herself. 

They’ve reached the entrance to the pub, and Wyatt reaches past Lucy to hold the door open for her. He smells like gun oil and aftershave, and Lucy hates herself for noticing it. She steps past him into the heat and noise of the pub, and he follows, heading toward the opposite corner from where Jane and the other women are seated. 

“Have a good evening, Ms. Carter,” Wyatt says, placing a strange emphasis on her name that Lucy doesn’t understand. “If you ever decide to join me for dinner, we can talk about when you’re from.”

Lucy blinks, shocked for a second before she regains the ability to speak. “Don’t you mean where?”

“Isn’t that what I said?” Wyatt questions. He nods at Lucy and walks away, leaving Lucy torn between following him and asking what he meant, and rejoining Jane to make sure she stays safe. She ends up joining Jane, because she’s hungry and she still has a mission to accomplish, but she makes a mental note to tell Rufus about the strange interaction. 

The meal passes without incident. Lucy gets teased slightly about talking to the soldiers, and she gets to hear all about the daily lives of the women outside of Bletchley Park. It’s not like they can talk about work at the pub, and they can’t talk about their lives when they’re busy working, so this is their time to blow off steam. Lucy doesn’t think anything of it when Jane excuses herself to go to the bathroom, but when she’s been away for almost ten minutes, Lucy starts to worry. 

“Excuse me,” she says to the women still at the table, and hurries toward the back of the pub where the bathrooms are. She spots Rufus at a nearby table, and when he sees the panicked look on her face, he scrambles to follow her. 

“What’s the matter?”

“Jane hasn’t come back from the bathroom,” Lucy replies. She leaves Rufus standing in the dim hall and pushes into the bathroom. A quick survey reveals it’s empty. She steps back out into the hallway and says faintly, “She’s gone.”

There’s a crash from the kitchen before Rufus can reply, and within seconds they’re both rushing for the door. They dodge past the cook and kitchen staff who are already annoyed at being disrupted by whoever came before them, and aim for the pub’s back door. 

“Where the hell is Karl?” Lucy asks as they spill out into the alleyway. She may not like the guy, but it’d be really handy if they had someone with a gun right now. 

“No idea,” Rufus replies. “There they are!” 

Lucy looks to where Rufus is pointing, and there’s Flynn alright, dragging Jane toward an idling car. Jane’s eyes are wide with panic, and if she’s screaming, Lucy can’t hear it over the gloved hand Flynn has clamped over her mouth. 

“Jane!” Lucy yells as she takes off down the alley toward the car. Flynn is too fast for her though, manhandling Jane into the car and yelling for his driver to drive. Lucy reaches the street just as the car takes off, and the last she sees of Jane is her panicked eyes watching Lucy through the back window. 

Rufus comes to a halt next to her, and she sees her dismay mirrored on his face. 

“What is going on out here?”

Lucy turns to the door of the pub and sees Wyatt standing there, a concerned look on his face. Lucy can’t even begin to think of a way to explain away what just happened. 

“It’s nothing,” Rufus says, turning around. “Just— Wyatt?”

Lucy blinks in surprise, and then Wyatt says, “ _Rufus_?”

“What the hell,” Lucy says. 

*

“So,” Wyatt says. “Your name isn’t Peggy Carter.”

“Of course not,” Lucy snaps. She flings her overcoat off and tugs at her scarf, fingers tangling in the material when it refuses to cooperate. “My name is Lucy. Lucy Preston. Is your name actually Wyatt?”

“It is,” Wyatt replies. “But my last name’s Logan. Sherwin was my grandfather’s name.” He reaches out and catches one end of Lucy’s scarf, untangling it carefully. His fingers are warm when they accidentally brush against her neck, and Lucy hopes she’s not blushing right now, especially when Wyatt says, “Lucy suits you better.”

“Thank you,” Lucy says shortly, stepping away from Wyatt now that her scarf isn’t trying to strangle her anymore. She can’t really handle the way Wyatt is looking at her, so she says, “I can’t believe you’re from the future.”

“What, you thought you guys and Flynn were the first time travelers?” Wyatt says. He’s watching Lucy with an amused look on his face, and Lucy feels like screaming. Jane is missing, they’ve messed up history, and there is nothing funny about what is happening.

“Well, _I_ did,” Lucy replies, shooting a dark look at Rufus in the corner. He’d fallen silent a little while ago, looking at Wyatt like he can’t believe what he’s seeing. He has the decency to look suitably guilty at her words, but he shrugs. 

“The tests were classified,” Rufus says. “Agent Christopher and Connor told me not to talk too much about what happened before.”

A lot of the story that Wyatt and Rufus have told her is almost too crazy to believe, but if someone had told her a few months ago that she’d become a time traveler, she would’ve thought they were insane. So maybe her definition of crazy needs to be revised. 

Wyatt had been part of the original team that tested the Mothership, but had stolen it with Rufus’s help to try and save his wife’s life. He was unsuccessful, and then arrested by Homeland Security, and Rufus had never seen him again. Rufus had gotten off with a warning because Wyatt said he forced Rufus to help him at gunpoint, and it wasn’t like Mason Industries had a lot of people trained to fly their time machines, so it was in their best interest to let Rufus continue working with them.

“I just don’t understand how you’re here,” Lucy says. She’s shuffling through the papers on her hotel desk. She has a map of the area somewhere, but she can’t find it. Karl is nowhere to be found, and they don’t have time to sit and wait for him to get back before they go after Jane. 

“I was supposed to be in jail,” Wyatt says, extracting a paper from the mess and handing it to Lucy. Somehow, Wyatt knew exactly what she needed without her having to ask. She takes the map from him and spreads it out on the bed while Wyatt continues talking. “Rittenhouse decided to maroon me in the past. I think they were afraid I would talk about what I knew.”

“Or steal a time machine again,” Lucy mutters. Wyatt shakes his head.

“I won’t ever do anything like that again,” Wyatt says. There’s an undercurrent of sorrow to his voice that tugs at Lucy’s heart. “I learned the hard way that changing history isn’t so easy, and Jessica wouldn’t have wanted me to live like that.”

Lucy thinks about Amy and doesn’t blame Wyatt one bit for stealing a time machine to try and get his wife back. 

“Good,” Rufus says. “Because we can’t get you back to the future if you’re just going to steal a ship again.”

“Please don’t leave me stranded here man,” Wyatt pleads. “I miss the twenty-first century.”

“Why leave you here in the first place? Why didn’t Rittenhouse just kill you?” Lucy asks, and Rufus winces. Lucy realizes she might sound harsh, but it would’ve made a lot more sense. 

“Maybe their idea of a sick joke?” Wyatt muses. “Drop me in the middle of the Blitz and hope history does the job for them?”

“Or they might have another plan,” Rufus says darkly. 

“Exactly.” Wyatt says. “But I didn’t die, registered in the Army under a fake name, and I got stationed here.”

Lucy sighs and turns back to the map. “Well, whatever their plans are, we don’t have time to worry about that right now. We have to get Jane back before Flynn kills her.”

Wyatt steps up to the map and indicates a section of the city. “If I had to guess where they’d be, this is it. No one ever goes over there, but suddenly in the past few days there’s been activity. I didn’t expect it to be time travelers.”

“Then let’s go,” Lucy says, grabbing her coat again. 

“Hold on,” Wyatt says. “We can’t just go in guns blazing — have either of you two ever even held a gun?”

Lucy and Rufus give him equally annoyed looks. 

“That’s why we have Karl,” Lucy says darkly. “That is, if he were here right now.”

“We have to be careful about this, or someone is going to end up shot,” Wyatt says. 

“We?” Lucy questions. 

“You need a soldier,” Wyatt says. “Here I am.”

Lucy looks to Rufus, who shrugs. “Fine with me,” he says. Lucy sighs and says, “Alright.”

“I’ll go find a car,” Wyatt says, and disappears out the door. Lucy watches him go and then turns to Rufus with a huff.

“Where the _hell_ is Karl?”

*

_May 25 & 26, 1941_

“Don’t you guys have comms or something?” Wyatt asks as they skirt around packing crates. The warehouse had been surprisingly easy to sneak into, given that Flynn only has the two men he brought on the time machine with him. He didn’t seem to have time to recruit any men from this era to be extra henchmen.

“We’re not supposed to bring future technology with us. You know that,” Rufus whispers back. 

“Maybe you should if you lose one of your team again,” Wyatt mutters back.

“We’ll find him after,” Lucy replies. “Karl can take care of himself, but Jane needs our help now.” She lifts herself up on her toes to peek over the edge of one of the crates, but is yanked back down almost immediately. 

“Are you crazy? They’ll see you,” Wyatt hisses at her. Despite his manhandling, his hand is gentle where it’s grasping Lucy’s elbow. Still, she yanks it away from him with a scowl. 

“We need to see what’s going on,” Lucy replies. Wyatt presses his lips together, frustration clear on his face as he gestures to a small crack between two of the crates. When Lucy moves closer and presses her face to the opening, she realizes she can see what’s going on beyond them without exposing her whole head. 

“Good catch,” she mutters. Wyatt scoffs, but moves over so Lucy can see better. Jane is tied to a chair, but it doesn’t look like Flynn or his men are hurting her. Flynn is speaking low enough that Lucy can’t hear him, but whatever he is saying is causing a very unimpressed look to adorn Jane’s face.

“They’re just...talking,” Lucy says.

Rufus scoffs. “Yeah. For now.”

“How are we going to get her out of here?” Wyatt asks. Lucy backs off the crevice to let him press in for a look. The scent of gun oil and aftershave wafts over her again.

“We need a distraction,” Lucy replies. Before Rufus and Wyatt can reply, or try and stop her, she’s up and scurrying along the wall of boxes.

“ _Lucy_ ,” Wyatt hisses behind her, but Lucy doesn’t look back. Flynn’s not going to shoot her. He’s had a dozen chances to do just that, and he always lets her go. Lucy doesn’t understand _why_ , but she’s just hoping that he doesn’t break his habit now.

Once she’s sufficiently far from where Rufus and Wyatt are still hiding, she holds out the crowbar she’d swiped from the top of one of the boxes and lets it fall to the floor. The resulting clatter echoes throughout the large space, and she hears Flynn’s sharp commands soon after. She’s just reaching out to pick up the crowbar again when a large, dirty boot steps on it.

“Well,” Karl says. “You weren’t supposed to be here.”

Lucy looks up into the barrel of a gun.

*

“It all makes sense now,” Lucy hisses as Karl drags her by the arm to where Flynn and the others are waiting. Jane’s eyes widen when she sees Lucy, but Flynn reaches out and tugs a gag into place before she can say anything. Jane’s normally perfect hair is falling out of its pins and her lipstick is smeared from where Flynn’s hand had covered her mouth. Anger makes Lucy’s body flash hot, and she jerks out of Karl’s grip. “All of those near misses on our missions — they weren’t accidents after all.”

“No,” Karl replies. “You idiots are just too lucky.”

Lucy snarls. 

“Lucy,” Flynn says, faux pleasantly. “Glad you could join us. I was just trying to convince Miss Hughes here that her codebreaking skills would be much better suited for some assignments that I had in mind.”

Jane growls behind the gag, and a wave of pride and fondness wells up in Lucy.

“She’ll never help scumbags like you,” Lucy retorts.

“I’ve had about enough of your mouth,” Karl snarls from behind Lucy. She hears the cock of a gun and realizes that she should be afraid. The barrel has barely touched the back of her head before a shot rings out, and Lucy flinches before she realizes that she’s not the one who’s been shot.

“What the hell?” Flynn says. Lucy looks around and sees Karl bleeding on the ground, and then Flynn is returning fire to where he thinks the shot came from. Lucy rushes to Jane’s side and pulls at the ropes binding her, yanking her upright when she’s finally free. Jane stumbles, but she’s quick to follow Lucy’s lead away from the chaos and toward the safety and cover of the boxes. Flynn and his men are busy exchanging fire with Wyatt and Rufus, so they don’t even notice the two women escaping.

Lucy really should’ve thought to check what the warehouse was storing before they went in guns blazing, but the thought doesn’t occur to her until after the explosion knocks her off her feet.

*

Lucy coughs up some more disgustingly dark flem and tries to breathe. If they were in the twenty-first century, there would be a paramedic here with an oxygen tank. Lucy never thought she’d think this, but she cannot wait to get back in that death trap of a time machine so she can go home.

“What happened to the stealthy part of the mission?” Rufus asks, watching the warehouse burn. 

Wyatt scoffs. “Ask her,” he says, gesturing to Lucy with his chin. His face is covered in soot and blood, and the dirt makes his eyes stand out even more.

“Wyatt was the one who shot someone,” Lucy replies. 

“He was about to shoot you!” Wyatt exclaims. “Was I supposed to let you die?”

Lucy has difficulty swallowing, and when she speaks, her voice is rough. From the smoke, of course. “Thank you,” she says.

“Ah, so she can show gratitude,” Wyatt jokes. Lucy rolls her eyes. She can see Rufus staring at the sky like he can’t believe he’s standing here with the two of them, looking at a warehouse of ammunition that they blew up in World War Two England. Wyatt shrugs. “You’re welcome.”

“You’re hurt,” Lucy points out. Wyatt is really hurt by the looks of his torn sleeve and the blood dripping down his fingers, but he just shrugs again. “It’s just a graze. I’ll be fine.”

Lucy doesn’t believe him, but can’t find the words to convince him otherwise. This whole mission has been exhausting, and now that Jane is in the safe custody of the soldiers from Bletchley Park, they can head home. If Flynn and his men made it out of the warehouse alive, Lucy’s sure they’re long gone. 

“I want to say I’m surprised about Karl,” Lucy says. “But I’m not.”

“Fuck Karl,” Rufus says, and Lucy barks out a laugh. 

“Fuck Karl,” she echoes. 

*

_San Francisco, USA_  
_October 3, 2016_

“Here.”

Wyatt leans forward and takes the tangled harness from Lucy’s hands, untwisting it and fastening it expertly. 

“Thank you,” Lucy replies, studying him. He’d found time to clean himself up between finding their car and getting the hell out of Bletchley, but he’s still in the Army uniform he was wearing when Lucy first met him in what feels like a lifetime ago. She admits to herself that the uniform suits Wyatt very well. 

If Wyatt has a problem with her staring, he doesn’t voice it — just raises an amused eyebrow at her and settles back in his own seat. 

“Think they’ll let me stay when we get back?” Wyatt asks.

“They better,” Rufus replies immediately, and Lucy nods her agreement.

“We won’t let them get rid of you,” Lucy promises.

“Ready?” Rufus asks. Lucy and Wyatt both nod, and Wyatt screws up his face like he’s anticipating something unpleasant. Lucy is almost used to the chaos of the trip and the resulting nausea, but if it’d been months between time jumps for Lucy, she’s sure she’d look the same. 

The trip seems to take forever, and be over in an instant, as usual. Lucy’s head is still spinning as the Lifeboat’s door opens, but she’s able to meet Wyatt’s gaze across the small space.

“Chewie, we’re home,” Wyatt says. Between her groan and Rufus’s laughter, Lucy thinks that maybe this time travel thing isn’t so bad after all.


End file.
